Sunday, April 17, 2016

These Glorious Days

This is my Montmorency Cherry tree in full bloom. It's beautiful and fuller every year. The good news is--the tree is thriving. The bad news (for us) is that the birds are still smarter and faster than we are, so I don't get much in the way of cherries. lol It's that glorious time of year when the world is waking up from it's long winter slumber. The lilies are pushing up through the rich black midwest dirt. The lilacs are full of heavy budded limbs that will burst forth any minute with their symphony of smell. The Canadian geese are coming in and laying their eggs across the pond...every morning like clockwork they show up circling and honking and scaring the chickens with their big-ness. And everywhere you look, the largess of Mother Nature abounds. And I, for one, feel so thoroughly gifted by her bestowal, as if these irises bloom just for me. That this lilac offers up the heady aromas, just for me. That the new growth of blackberries and raspberries and asparagus in my garden are here, just for me. It's a good day to be alive. I have been trying to get back to a little more organization in my life. It feels as though I have been on a massive landslide the past year and a half. And now here I am, at the bottom, and as that miracle of survival always does, I feel energized and elated by the very fact of my survival. I want to do everything. I want to do nothing. I want to read more and whine less. I want to cook--COOK !! And I want to get my garden going and have all kinds of free fresh organic foods to COOK! and eat. lol In a moment of desperation, the other night I made sweet buttermilk biscuits to cover with fresh cut and lightly sweetened strawberries and called it shortcake like grandma used to make. It was delicious...not as delicious as it will be in a month or two when the strawberries don't have to be trucked in from Florida or Mexico or somewhere equally exotic. But it surely did taste good nonetheless.

I was able to mow my front yard (most of it) for the first time this week and I think it has been almost 2 years since I was able to do that. It was wonderful. Lots of folks don't like mowing (my husband) but I love it. I love the smell of cut grass, I love a good looking yard. I love where I live, and in a month or so, my yard will look like a private park...completely surrounded by trees and honeysuckle hedges, blackberry brambles and sassafras. And I will sit out there in the middle of it and wonder at the beauty and read my books and eat my lunch. Or have my morning coffee. Or pray. There are lots of areas not filled in quite yet in front, but the ones that are were getting high, so I pulled out the mower and went to it. I cut the old wisteria all back too. Here's where she stands right now...

Feeling grateful today for the little things in life... hens that are laying, family that cares and blue skies and sunshine.Namaste.

Welcome...

...to our little house on the Prairie, where we're trying to live a healthier, gentler life with our chickens and gardens and critters. Always an adventure, ever learning and loving and living life to it's fullest.